Equifaxhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/equifax
en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 22:24:28 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 22:24:28 -0500The latest news on Equifax from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/kimberly-haman-sues-heartland-bank-and-equifax-2014-2Here's The Nightmare That Could Ensue If Your Credit Bureau Says You're Deadhttp://www.businessinsider.com/kimberly-haman-sues-heartland-bank-and-equifax-2014-2
Mon, 10 Feb 2014 14:58:00 -0500Pamela Engel
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52f925bf6da8119e522ca6a3-480-/equifax.jpg" border="0" alt="Equifax" width="480" /></p><p>A 46-year-old Missouri woman has allegedly been trying to convince her bank that she's alive for more than a year, <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/excuse-me-i-m-not-dead-st-louis-county-woman/article_9802cd07-8bea-59ba-b7fe-a5fc3b051482.html">according to</a> the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.</p>
<p>The bank initially declared Kimberly Haman&nbsp;dead for reasons unknown and the credit reporting agency Equifax then reported that false information, she claims. A year later, the mistake still is not fixed, she says.</p>
<p>Haman, a financial services supervisor, has allegedly been denied a credit card and prevented from refinancing her mortgage because credit reports list her as deceased, the Post-Dispatch reports. Haman says she has contacted the bank and credit reporting bureau several times to get the mistake fixed to no avail.</p>
<p>Now, she "is at a complete loss as to what else she can do," according to the lawsuit. Haman is baffled as to what could have led to the alleged error in the first place.</p>
<p>But these mistakes can and do happen. In 2012, <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/05/06/credit-scars.html">an investigation by The Columbus Dispatch</a> revealed how difficult it is to get obvious mistakes corrected on credit reports.</p>
<p>Equifax, the credit reporting agency that Haman is dealing with, has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2000 for not providing phone help to consumers, according to The Dispatch.</p>
<p>The Dispatch analyzed about 30,000 consumer complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in 24 states and found that almost&nbsp;200 people told the FTC their credit report listed them as dead.</p>
<p>And more than half of the people who filed complaints with the FTC said they couldn't convince the credit reporting agencies to fix the mistakes.</p>
<p>Equifax finally took the error off Haman's credit report after a reporter asked about the lawsuit, a spokeswoman told the Post-Dispatch. But Haman still needs to regain her good credit rating.</p>
<p>We left a message with her bank, Heartland Bank of St. Louis, and will update this post if we hear back.</p>
<p>The Post-Dispatch points out that a Federal Trade Commission study of credit reporting agencies found that 26% of the 1,001 consumers surveyed found at least one "potentially material" mistake on a credit report.</p>
<p>Sylvia Goldsmith, Haman's lawyer, told the Post-Dispatch that these credit bureaus take a "cavalier attitude" toward their responsibilities and that Haman's case is "shining the light" on deficiencies in how credit reporting agencies investigate disputed information.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kimberly-haman-sues-heartland-bank-and-equifax-2014-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-sesame-credit-karma-free-credit-scores-2013-9There's No Reason To Pay For Your Credit Score Anymorehttp://www.businessinsider.com/credit-sesame-credit-karma-free-credit-scores-2013-9
Thu, 05 Sep 2013 15:13:00 -0400Mandi Woodruff
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5228992c6bb3f7822b8b4567-480-/secret-lying-laughing-happy-7.jpg" border="0" alt="secret, lying, laughing, happy" width="480" />Forget for a minute all the complicated math that goes into computing your credit scores. People are sometimes lucky if they even know where to find them.</span></p>
<p>For some reason, the geniuses of credit reporting decided it'd be a good idea to offer the physical report for free once a year and dangle the actual score itself in front of us like a juicy carrot.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you want to find out your actual credit <em>score</em>&nbsp;you usually have to pay and endure a barrage of ads for all sorts of different credit monitoring products in the meantime.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Luckily, there are a handful of places you can go for a free score. &nbsp;Some of our favorites are&nbsp;<a href="http://www.creditsesame.com/free-credit-score/" target="_blank">Credit Sesame</a>, <a href="https://www.credit.com" target="_blank">Credit.com</a> and <a href="https://www.creditkarma.com/" target="_blank">Credit Karma</a>, which all offer free credit scores to people who sign up for their services. You can also get an estimate of your credit score range from <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/credit-score-fico-calculator.aspx" target="_blank">Bankrate.com.</a>&nbsp;On all these sites, your score can be updated on a monthly basis.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">So which site should you use? </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The biggest difference between the scores offered by these sites is which credit reporting agency data they are based on. Credit Sesame offers up the <a href="http://www.experian.com/consumer-information/national-risk-model.html" target="_blank">Experian National&nbsp;</a></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.experian.com/consumer-information/national-risk-model.html" target="_blank">Risk Score</a>, which is based on data collected by Experian only. Credit.com offers a free estimate of your score based on Experian data, which it uses to assign you a letter grade (A-F).&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">CreditKarma offers two scores &ndash; your </span><a href="https://www.creditkarma.com/article/vantageScore" target="_blank">VantageScore</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> credit&nbsp;score and your </span><a href="https://www.creditkarma.com/question/what-is-difference-between-transrisk-score-and-fico" target="_blank">TransRisk credit score</a>&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">which are both based on TransUnion data.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span></span><strong>What that means for you</strong>:<strong> </strong>Not much.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Your scores should be similar regardless of where you get them as long&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">as your credit data is similar. And, those scores are going to be&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">directionally similar to your FICO score," s<span>ays John Ulzheimer, credit expert for Creditsesame.com. "</span>So, if you have great credit&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">you'll have a great score regardless of what model is being used. &nbsp;If&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">you have poor credit you'll have a poor score regardless of what model&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">is being used."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Our advice:</strong> Check your scores on all three sites (Why not? They're free.). If your Credit.com score is way off from your CreditKarma score, it could be a clue that there's an error on either your Experian or TransUnion credit reports and vice versa. &nbsp;Just&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">don't get too caught up in the number itself. Since there are so many kinds of scores out there and lenders pick and choose which ones to judge you by, it's nearly impossible to keep track of them all. Instead, focus on which risk category you find yourself in (example: low risk, high risk, excellent, etc.) to get an idea of how healthy your credit is.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-dispute-a-credit-report-error-2013-2" >Here's the fool-proof way to get errors off your credit report </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-sesame-credit-karma-free-credit-scores-2013-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-mixed-credit-report-julie-miller-2013-7Here's The Credit Error That Led A Woman To Win $18.6 Million Against Equifaxhttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-mixed-credit-report-julie-miller-2013-7
Wed, 31 Jul 2013 10:24:00 -0400John Ulzheimer
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4f88757f6bb3f7ec7d000009-480-/tangled.jpg" border="0" alt="tangled-tangle-trapped-ropes" width="480" /></p><p>A federal jury recently awarded an Oregon woman $18.6 million over Equifax because of errors on her credit report. Her issue: she had a credit file that was mixed with that of another woman, who happened to have poor credit.</p>
<p><strong>So, what is a mixed credit report and how do you avoid this happening to you?</strong><span id="more-5727"></span></p>
<p>If you&rsquo;ve got a common name, like &ldquo;Julie Miller&rdquo; (the name of the woman in Oregon who sued Equifax), there&rsquo;s a chance that your credit report could be confused with another consumer with the same name. It&rsquo;s not enough to have a different date of birth or a different address or a different Social Security Number.</p>
<p>Mixed credit reports, which are not very common but are very difficult to get permanently corrected, are caused when the credit bureau places information belonging to another consumer on your credit reports, and then delivers that report to a lender. If the &ldquo;other&rdquo; consumer has poor credit then the lender will consider that it&rsquo;s yours and could deny you as a result. And, credit scoring systems cannot distinguish between your credit data and credit data belonging to another person&hellip;so they will consumer and &ldquo;score&rdquo; the information even if it&rsquo;s incorrect.</p>
<p>The credit reporting agencies are under no obligation to proactively investigate the information on your credit reports to determine if it&rsquo;s yours or if it belongs to another person with the same name.&nbsp; You have to pull your own credit reports, review the information and then file a formal dispute with the credit bureaus if you find data that you believe is incorrect or belongs to someone else.</p>
<div>
<p>In the case of Miller v Equifax, Ms. Miller filed multiple disputes over a 2 year period and provided her identification information several times but still could not get her credit file segregated from that of another consumer. She was denied a line of credit as a result of collections on her credit report. And for those of you who are new to the credit report game&hellip;that&rsquo;s what some people might call &ldquo;damage.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In my work as an expert witness (140+ cases as of this week) mixed files cases do not come up often and when they do it&rsquo;s rare that that Plaintiff (a consumer) has an otherwise clean credit report. As such, it&rsquo;s harder to argue that the consumer/Plaintiff has been damaged solely as a result of her mixed report data because there&rsquo;s a chance he or she would have been denied credit anyway as a result of the negative and accurate information that was on the credit report.</p>
<p>The reason mixed files are so hard to correct is because the lender isn&rsquo;t sending in incorrect information.&nbsp; So, they cannot fix the problem because they&rsquo;re not causing it. The problem is being caused by the credit bureau inadvertently co-mingling data belonging to two consumers and placing it on one credit report.</p>
<p>There is a simple way to correct this issue. The credit bureaus can suppress or mask the allegedly incorrect information. This causes it to be removed from the credit report AND it blocks it from being re-added down the road.</p>
</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-mixed-credit-report-julie-miller-2013-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/oregon-woman-julie-miller-awarded-186m-against-equifax-2013-7Credit Bureau Ordered To Hand Over $18 Million To An Oregon Woman http://www.businessinsider.com/oregon-woman-julie-miller-awarded-186m-against-equifax-2013-7
Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:17:00 -0400Mandi Woodruff
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51f6e8286bb3f7b409000012-480-/screen%20shot%202013-07-29%20at%206.09.22%20pm.png" border="0" alt="equifax" width="480" /></p><p>After spending years fruitlessly attempting to reverse errors on her credit report, an Oregon woman walked away with one of the largest awards in history against a consumer credit agency.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Julie Miller, of Marion County, Ore., was awarded <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/29/2375431/woman-awarded-186-million-after-credit-reporting-agency-failed-to-fix-mistakes-for-three-years/" target="_blank">$18.6 million in damages</a> against Equifax on Friday, winning a long battle in federal court.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Miller claimed she reached out to Equifax at least eight times between 2009 and 2011 to address errors she found on her credit report. Two other credit reporting agencies had no problem fulfilling Miller's request, but Equifax, for some reason, allegedly would not budge.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It wasn't as if Miller was complaining about a missing letter in her name or an incorrect address. She claimed her report showed credit accounts she never opened, along with debt collection attempts and a Social Security number that wasn't even hers. &nbsp;Just one of these flags could have dealt a nasty blow to anyone's credit score, let alone all of them at once.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>"There was damage to her reputation, a breach of her privacy and the lost opportunity to seek credit," her attorney,&nbsp;</span>Justin Baxter,&nbsp;told Oregon Live.&nbsp;<span>"She has a brother who is disabled and who can't get credit on his own and she wasn't able to help him."</span></p>
<p>This is a huge victory for Miller, but it only underlines the seriously disjointed world of credit reporting in the U.S.</p>
<p>A recent report by the Federal Trade Commission found that as many as one in five consumers have errors on their credit reports that could hinder their ability to apply for new credit or stick them with sky-high interest rates. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Of those errors, 5% could have blocked consumers like Miller from access to credit and only 20% of people who disputed errors ever saw them corrected.</p>
<p>The sad part here is that she did everything right. As soon as she discovered the problems on her report, she reached out to all three credit bureaus and requested adjustments. She also asked for copies of her credit report.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There are literally tens of thousands of complaints against credit bureaus floating in the ether out there, either with state attorneys general, the Federal Trade Commission, or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, all of which are charged with protecting consumers from fraud.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, what does a case like Miller's mean for the rest of consumers out there?&nbsp;</p>
<p>Hopefully, it will encourage credit bureaus to take consumer complaints seriously, but only time will tell. Equifax is pursuing plans to appeal the verdict as we type.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you have a credit error you'd like to report, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-dispute-credit-report-errors-2013-2" target="_blank">quickest and easiest way to go about it</a> is to fill out an error form at each of the three major bureau's websites. From then on, it's a game of wait and see. If you feel like you're getting the runaround, it could be time to call on the FTC, CFPB or your state attorney general for help.</p>
<p><span>If your claim is denied, you can submit supplemental evidence and request another look. Once an agency has recieved your request, they are legally obligated to reopen your case and resolve your claim within 30 to 45 days under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">If they fail to do so and the errors are seriously hindering your ability to obtain credit, you could consider hiring a consumer attorney.&nbsp;</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/oregon-woman-julie-miller-awarded-186m-against-equifax-2013-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-world-of-credit-reporting-ftc-cbs-kroft-2013-2How America's Credit Reporting System Gets Away With 40 Million Mistakeshttp://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-world-of-credit-reporting-ftc-cbs-kroft-2013-2
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:43:00 -0500Mandi Woodruff
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51197dc26bb3f7171300001d-400-300/steve-kroft.png" border="0" alt="steve kroft" width="400" height="300" />Consumer activists were rattled Monday after the FTC released a report on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/42-million-have-credit-report-errors-ftc-report-2013-2" target="_blank">widespread credit reporting errors.</a></span></p>
<p>According to the agency, as many as one in five consumers have errors on their credit reports that could hinder their ability to apply for new credit or stick them with sky high interest rates. &nbsp;</p>
<p>The report was highlighted in <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57567957/40-million-mistakes-is-your-credit-report-accurate/" target="_blank">a fascinating 60 Minutes segment by CBS' Steve Kroft.</a></p>
<p><span>"Besides having financial consequences, the whole dispute process takes an emotional toll on people," Kroft said in an&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57567975-10391709/the-one-thing-to-know-about-your-credit-report/" target="_blank">extended interview</a>.</p>
<p><span>"It's just really hard sometimes to get these things fixed. You feel like you're up against this machine and there's no way to break through. After a while I think people sometimes start to question their own sanity.... so we decided to show the consumer what it's like."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>From what we've learned from his six-month investigation and two new reports on the credit reporting industry, it's more evident than ever that consumers are in need of real change.&nbsp;</p><h3>In a controversial new '60 Minutes' segment, Steven Kroft, an award-winning investigative journalist in his own right, has tried for two years to correct an erroneous line on his credit report. </h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5119526e69bedd596700000f-400-300/in-a-controversial-new-60-minutes-segment-steven-kroft-an-award-winning-investigative-journalist-in-his-own-right-has-tried-for-two-years-to-correct-an-erroneous-line-on-his-credit-report.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Like most consumers who call the 800 number on credit reporting agency websites, he spent 15 minutes on the phone with a representative from India and was told to fill out a dispute online. </h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5119525feab8ea4c43000039-400-300/like-most-consumers-who-call-the-800-number-on-credit-reporting-agency-websites-he-spent-15-minutes-on-the-phone-with-a-representative-from-india-and-was-told-to-fill-out-a-dispute-online.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>The problem with asking consumers to file complaints electronically –– or often by snail mail –– is that they're rarely reviewed by the agencies themselves.</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5119526c69beddb66a000001-400-300/the-problem-with-asking-consumers-to-file-complaints-electronically--or-often-by-snail-mail-is-that-theyre-rarely-reviewed-by-the-agencies-themselves.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-world-of-credit-reporting-ftc-cbs-kroft-2013-2#a-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-report-found-that-of-more-than-32-million-disputes-filed-by-consumers-in-2011-cras-only-fielded-about-15-percent-in-house-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/42-million-have-credit-report-errors-ftc-report-2013-2There Could Be Something Wrong With 42 Million Credit Reportshttp://www.businessinsider.com/42-million-have-credit-report-errors-ftc-report-2013-2
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:01:00 -0500Mandi Woodruff
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<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5119481aeab8eae12d000000-400-1/white-spaceholder.jpg" border="0" alt="white spaceholder" />The Federal Trade Commission just <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/os/2013/02/130211factareport.pdf" target="_blank">released a report</a> on the credit reporting industry that could spell trouble for tens of millions of consumers.&nbsp;</p>
<p>When the agency reviewed 1,000 consumers' credit reports, it found 25 percent of people had at least one error that could negatively impact their credit score. And once the errors were disputed, one in ten consumers saw their FICO scores increase, including five percent who had a 25-point bump.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is a huge deal.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>Two other major reports on credit reporting accuracy have offered completely different pictures in the past.</span></p>
<p>The first, conducted by the <a href="http://www.financial-education-icfe.org/financial_news_press_releases/2004/20040629_credit_file_error_update.asp" target="_blank">U.S. Public Interest Research Group in</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.financial-education-icfe.org/financial_news_press_releases/2004/20040629_credit_file_error_update.asp" target="_blank">&nbsp;2004</a>, estimated close to 80 percent of reports are erroneous in some way. And in 2011, the <a href="http://perc.net/files/press_releases/May%202011%20News%20Release.pdf" target="_blank">Policy and Economic Research Council</a> answered with a report that found less than 1 percent of consumers had potentially damning errors on their reports.&nbsp;</span></p>
<h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-world-of-credit-reporting-ftc-cbs-kroft-2013-2"><span>Click here to see how we got in this mess &gt;</span></a></h2>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The FTC's report is the latest of five in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cfpbs-latest-report-on-credit-reporting-experian-transunion-equifax-2012-12" target="_blank">a decade-long study</a> of the credit reporting industry, and could be the best analysis available to date.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&ldquo;These are eye-opening numbers for American consumers,&rdquo; Howard Shelanski, Director of the&nbsp;</span><span class="il" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">FTC</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&rsquo;s Bureau of Economics, said in a statement Monday. &ldquo;The results of this first-of-its-kind study [making] it clear that consumers should check their credit reports regularly. &nbsp;If they don&rsquo;t, they are potentially putting their pocketbooks at risk."</span></p>
<h3><strong>Why consumers should care</strong>&nbsp;</h3>
<p>With the new findings, the FTC estimates between 10 and 21 percent of consumers have inaccurate credit reports &ndash;&ndash; that means between 20 million and 42 million consumers are toting around reports that make them look riskier to lenders than they actually are.</p>
<p>Slice and dice the numbers however you want (the Consumer Data Industry Association <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/ftc-report-confirms-credit-reports-accurate-141400044.html" target="_blank">put a positive spin</a> on things), but there's no getting around the fact that even seemingly small errors can pose problems for consumers.</p>
<p><span>"The problem is that if I have a credit score of 619, and I report an error and it goes up to 620, then that one point was meaningful," John Ulzheimer, CEO of&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.smartcredit.com" target="_blank">Smartcredit.com</a><span>, told BI. "Most lenders have these prefixed score tiers ... and if you're not at that score or higher, you don't get [competitive interest rates]."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">And considering the fact that errors are likely to appear on reports pulled from all three major credit reporting agencies, the problem could be three-fold.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Boston University Prof.&nbsp;</span>Michael Salinger<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">, a former director of the Federal Trade Commission&rsquo;s Bureau of Economics, reached out to BI to say consumers should take the report as a call to action.</span></p>
<p>&ldquo;Most people do not realize how many prices are affected by their credit scores.&nbsp; Even what you pay for car insurance depends on it," he said. " The FTC report seems to suggest that the rate of serious error is only about 5%, but that is enough to make it worth checking whether the information the credit reporting agencies have on you is correct."</p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 1.17em; color: #000000;">Easy to spot, difficult to fix</strong></p>
<p><span>Finding the errors is the easy part. Anyone can c<span>heck their credit report for free from all three credit bureaus at&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp" target="_blank">annualcreditreport.com.</a></span></p>
<p>It's getting a reporting agency to fix the issue that can be tricky, as we saw played out in this <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57567957/40-million-mistakes-is-your-credit-report-accurate/" target="_blank">eye-opening report by CBS's Steve Kroft.</a></p>
<p><span>In the FTC study, the most common errors involved information furnished by credit lenders (13.8 percent) and debt collectors (7.5 percent). Even so, it's up to the consumer to file a dispute with their credit agency in order to get the problem fixed. Once you've gotten the CRA involved (either Transunion, Equifax or Experian), it is under federal obligation to see that the issue is addressed. And if the error is repeated at all three agencies, you have to file disputes individually with each one.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The good news is that once these errors are disputed and corrected, consumers should see an immediate impact on their credit score.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">About 8 million credit report disputes are filed each year, which seems paltry considering the FTC's findings.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>"Clearly, you want to have accuracy on a credit report," Ulzheimer said. "Even if it's a cosmetic error, like an incorrect address or your employment information is outdated ... consumers have a right to a correct credit report across the board."</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-financially-unstable-states-2013-2" >10 states where people live on the edge of financial ruin > </a></strong></p>
<p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-boomers-are-getting-divorced-2013-2" >There are way too many single boomers > </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/42-million-have-credit-report-errors-ftc-report-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/salary-information-not-private-anymore-2013-1The Myth That Your Salary Information Is Private Has Been Officially Debunkedhttp://www.businessinsider.com/salary-information-not-private-anymore-2013-1
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:38:00 -0500Megan Durisin
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/510abdd16bb3f7c036000001-443/office-16.jpg" border="0" alt="Office" />Think your salary is private? You may need to think again.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><a href="http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/30/16762661-exclusive-your-employer-may-share-your-salary-and-equifax-might-sell-that-data?lite">A detailed report by CNBC's Bob Sullivan</a> reveals that The Work Number, an Equifax-owned company, is making bank off your hard-earned dollars.</p>
<p>The company sells personal information from its database, including employment and salary records, to financial service companies and debt collectors.</p>
<p>And it's not hard to guess where the company is getting its data &ndash;&ndash; your employer.</p>
<p>The Work Number's database is filled with employment records for one-third of U.S. adults, which it sells to third parties when a person applies for credit.<span>&nbsp;Its records include pay stubs, human resources information and unemployment claims, which it receives from willing companies, government agencies and schools, the story reports.</span></p>
<p>One <a href="http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/30/16762661-exclusive-your-employer-may-share-your-salary-and-equifax-might-sell-that-data?lite">woman interviewed by CNBC had a Work Number report</a> that was a whopping 22 pages long, complete with a copy of all of her paychecks over the years.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">If it all sounds a little too close to home for you, that's because it is. We asked Jo</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">hn Ulzheimer, CEO of Smartcredit.com, for his take.</span></p>
<p>"We're inching closer and closer to a complete absence of financial&nbsp;privacy," Ulzheimer said. "The common understanding that your salary information may not&nbsp;be disclosed by your employer seems to be a giant myth."</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">As it stands, employment information is sold to debt collectors to determine if the applicant has the ability to pay back a debt. For example, if a person claims to be unable to pay back a debt but data from The Work Number shows they are, in fact, gainfully employed, the collection agency is unlikely to accept a low settlement offer.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><span>"What's not mentioned in the [CNBC] story is the&nbsp;</span><span>fact that collectors can also pull your full credit files to help them&nbsp;</span><span>collect debts, so not only do they know if you're working but they also&nbsp;</span><span>know if you have credit lines available that can be used to pay back&nbsp;</span><span>collections," Ulzheimer said.&nbsp;<br /></span></span></p>
<p>And businesses are willing to fork over their employment and HR records to The Work Number because it cuts out the middle man and means they won't have to field a bunch of employment verification calls from collectors, <a href="http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/30/16762661-exclusive-your-employer-may-share-your-salary-and-equifax-might-sell-that-data?lite">CNBC reports</a>. It also gives consumers a faster way to verify their employment when renting a new home or apartment, says CNBC.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">While it's unsettling to imagine a third-party sniffing around your employment records, it's all legal. &nbsp;Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, debt collection agencies have "permissible purpose" to access employment records.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>In fact, when used by lenders to determine creditworthiness, this kind of clearance could be good for both lenders and consumers, he added:</p>
<p><span>"It doesn't do the consumer any good to saddle&nbsp;</span><span>them with a loan that they cannot pay back."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>In the end, there's not much consumers can do about it anyway.</span></p>
<p><span><span>"You can be angry&nbsp;</span><span>about it, which would be understandable," Ulzheimer said. "Or, you can be apathetic, which&nbsp;</span><span>is probably healthier since you can't do anything about your data being&nbsp;</span><span>shared by big business."</span></span></p>
<p><em>&ndash;&ndash;Mandi Woodruff contributed to this report.</em></p>
<p><em><strong style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">SEE ALSO: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/money-habits-to-drop-by-age-30-2013-1">13 Money Lies You Should Stop Telling Yourself By Age 30 &gt;</a></strong></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/salary-information-not-private-anymore-2013-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/cfpbs-latest-report-on-credit-reporting-experian-transunion-equifax-2012-123 Surprising Findings From The Latest Study On Credit Reporting Agencieshttp://www.businessinsider.com/cfpbs-latest-report-on-credit-reporting-experian-transunion-equifax-2012-12
Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:03:00 -0500Mandi Woodruff
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/50cb7cae69bedd2e38000001-401-300/spying-snooping-stalker-creepy-watching-hidden-2.png" alt="spying, snooping, stalker, creepy, watching, hidden" width="401" height="300" border="0" /></p><p>We're still at least a year away from laying eyes on the FTC's decade-long review of credit reporting agencies, but a new study from a consumer watchdog gives an interesting preview at <a href="http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201212_cfpb_credit-reporting-white-paper.pdf" target="_blank">what we might be in for.</a>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The&nbsp;Consumer Financial Protection Bureau analyzed data from the three largest CRAs &ndash;&ndash; Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion &ndash;&ndash; &nbsp;over the last year.&nbsp;</p>
<p>We pored over the 38-page report. Here are a few of the most staggering findings we came across:</p>
<h3><strong>1) Credit agencies are letting an automated system pass off 85 percent of all consumer disputes:&nbsp;</strong></h3>
<p><strong>Why you should care:</strong> Much of the reason CRAs are under the microscope now is to figure out just how accurate they are. According to the CFPB, of the 8 million disputes filed by consumers in 2011, CRAs only fielded about 15 percent in-house. They sent the lion's share off to an automated system called eOSCAR, which in turn passed them off to whichever creditor was responsible for the data in dispute.</p>
<p>Here's the troubling part: For the most part, eOSCAR isn't equipped to handle supplementary materials consumers may send in to plead their case &ndash;&ndash; like letters or other documentation of their credit history. That means your creditors may never see them. Instead, eOSCAR labels disputes with one of two codes depending on their content and just 26 percent are sent to creditors with any sort of extra information.&nbsp;</p>
<p>According a rep from the Consumer Data Industry Association, timeliness is the main driving factor behind the use of the system:</p>
<p>"The complaint is then sent by computer to the lender who replies in kind. The lender, therefore, knows what the dispute is about (usually the amount owed on a credit card or loan) and responds appropriately,"&nbsp;Norm Magnuson, Vice President of Public Affairs, said in an e-mail.</p>
<h3><strong>2) More than half of the information in the credit bureau databases are supplied by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-credit-card-industry-market-competition-2014-5">credit card industry</a>:</strong></h3>
<p><strong>Why you should care:</strong>&nbsp;Since data like credit limits, payment history, and delinquent activity are essentially the biggest factors in determining your overall credit health, it's important to understand which creditors are supplying that information the most. According to the CFPB's report, 40 percent of that information is being supplied by credit card companies, and 18 percent comes from retail credit cards. In contrast, just 7 percent comes from mortgage lenders or servicers and 4 percent from auto lenders.&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>3)&nbsp;Fewer than one in five people get copies of their credit report each year:</strong></h3>
<p><strong>Why you should care:</strong> This is a pretty dismal statistic. Downloading a recent credit report every year is the surest way to sound the alarm on any inaccurate information. It's also completely free to consumers (<a href="http://www.annualcreditreport.com" target="_blank">www.annualcreditreport.com</a>). Of the 44 million consumers who could get a report, only one in five actually bother.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cfpbs-latest-report-on-credit-reporting-experian-transunion-equifax-2012-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/equifax-settles-claim-it-wrongfully-sold-homeowner-data-2012-10Equifax Fined $400,000 For Selling Homeowner Datahttp://www.businessinsider.com/equifax-settles-claim-it-wrongfully-sold-homeowner-data-2012-10
Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:45:00 -0400Credit.com
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/507c23726bb3f75876000021/angry-homeowner.jpg" border="0" alt="angry homeowner " /></p><p>Between early 2008 and early 2010, one of the best-known names in credit reporting sold data on certain delinquent homeowners to third parties, and that information was then re-sold.</p>
<p>However, two of the companies involved have now settled cases with the FTC over the actions.</p>
<p>The Federal Trade Commission recently reached settlement agreements with both the credit reporting firm Equifax and a company known as Direct Lending Source over charges that they violated both the FTC Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act for a period of nearly three years, according to a report from the government agency. In all, Direct Lending Source will pay a $1.2 million civil penalty, while Equifax was hit with a fine of $393,000.</p>
<p>The charges stemmed from actions related to Equifax compiling and selling what are known as pre-screened lists of consumers who had fallen behind on their <span style="color: #339966;"><a href="https://www.credit.com/r/home-loans-content/af=p90512&amp;ag=default" target="_blank" title="Product Link: Find a home loan on Credit.com"><span style="color: #339966;">home loan</span></a> </span>payments, the report said. Between 2008 and 2010, Equifax sold Direct Lending and its affiliate companies lists of people who matched specific criteria, and those lists contained a wealth of sensitive data about the consumers in question. This included their credit scores and whether they were 30, 60, or 90 days behind on their home <span style="color: #339966;"><span style="color: #339966;"><a href="https://www.credit.com/r/loans-content/af=p90512&amp;ag=default" target="_blank" title="Product Link: Find a loan on Credit.com">loan</a>&nbsp;</span></span>bills.</p>
<p>Direct Lending's fine is considerably larger than Equifax's because in some cases it then re-sold the lists it bought from the credit bureau to third parties that then pursued those consumers for a number of products and services, the report said. These included loan modification and <span style="color: #339966;"><span style="color: #339966;"><a href="https://www.credit.com/r/loans-content/af=p90512&amp;ag=default" target="_blank" title="Product Link: Find a loan on Credit.com">debt</a>&nbsp;</span></span>relief products that may have required down payments from those who signed up.</p>
<p>The terms of the settlement include both companies having to be more careful about the ways in which they sell data, and to which companies they provide this information, the report said. In particular, both will not be allowed to sell prescreened lists of consumers to companies that they believe do not have a permissible purpose to use them.</p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">[Free Resource:</span> <a href="https://www.credit.com/r/crc-content/af=p90512&amp;ag=default">Check your credit score and report card for free with Credit.com</a><span style="color: #000000;">]</span></p>
<p>The last few years have seen the federal government crack down on the ways in which companies handle sensitive consumer data, and information that can have a negative impact on their financial or credit standings. This includes actions by not only the FTC, but also the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other agencies.</p>
<p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2012/10/equifax-settles-claim-it-wrongfully-sold-homeowner-data/">Credit.com</a>, home of the <a href="https://www.credit.com/r/crc-content/af=p90512&amp;ag=default">free Credit Report Card</a>.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-i-paid-off-my-five-figure-debt-in-five-months-2012-2"><strong>SEE ALSO: How I paid off my five-figure debt in five months &gt;&nbsp;</strong></a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/equifax-settles-claim-it-wrongfully-sold-homeowner-data-2012-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-know-about-your-49-different-credit-scores-2012-8There Are Actually 49 Different Credit Scores To Worry Abouthttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-know-about-your-49-different-credit-scores-2012-8
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:09:00 -0400Mandi Woodruff
<p>Time to debunk another <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/even-more-credit-myths-debunked-2012-3" target="_blank">credit score myth</a>: You have only one number to worry about.</p>
<p>"TV commercials and consumer education campaigns have trained people to think of their credit score as one number," says&nbsp;John Ulzheimer,&nbsp;president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com and credit expert for <a href="http://www.CreditSesame.com" target="_blank">Creditsesame.com.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"But this popular belief is simply not true."</p>
<p>In fact, there are a whopping 49 different FICO scores that credit reporting bureaus use to calculate that all-important measure of consumer credit worthiness.&nbsp;</p>
<p>For starters, each of the three credit bureaus&ndash;&ndash;Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian&ndash;&ndash;calculate a half dozen different "flavors" of FICO scores. That includes separate scores for auto, personal loans, mortgages, bankcards, and a generic FICO score.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If it sounds complicated, that's because it is.&nbsp;In the helpful <a href="http://csnew.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/credit-sesame-julzheimer-infographic-final.png" target="_blank">infographic below</a>,&nbsp;Ulzheimer breaks it all down for you:&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.creditsesame.com/blog/scores-scores-and-more-scores-how-many-fico-credit-scores-do-you-have"><img src="http://csnew.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/credit-sesame-julzheimer-infographic-final.png" border="0" alt="Scores, Scores, Scores: How Many FICO Scores Do You Have?" /></a></p>
<h2>DON'T MISS:<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-cost-of-being-a-us-consumer-today-2012-8" target="_blank"> What it really costs to be an American consumer &gt;&nbsp;</a></h2><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-know-about-your-49-different-credit-scores-2012-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/dont-blow-money-on-credit-monitoring-for-your-kids-2012-3Don't Blow Money On Credit Monitoring For Your Kidshttp://www.businessinsider.com/dont-blow-money-on-credit-monitoring-for-your-kids-2012-3
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:34:00 -0400Noelia de la Cruz
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4f733c0feab8eac268000033/kid-shadow.jpg" border="0" alt="kid, shadow" /></p><p>Children are 51 times more likely than adults to have their identities stolen, according to a recent <a href="https://www.allclearid.com/resources/research" target="_blank">Carnegie Mellon University study</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>That's because children are pretty easy targets&mdash;they have clean slates and often don't discover what's happened until years later.</span></p>
<p>As child identity theft in the U.S. continues to rise, <a href="http://www.equifax.com/family/" target="_blank">Equifax</a>&nbsp;is the first of the three credit bureaus to roll out a comprehensive credit monitoring service for the whole family, up to four children included.</p>
<p>But it comes at a hefty price of $29.95 per month.</p>
<p>Some of the features Equifax offers in its new family plan include 24/7 credit file monitoring, access to credit scores once every 12 months, and alerts on any activity against the children's files.</p>
<p>But this all just sounds like another way to profit from people's fears. Lately credit bureaus&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-bureaus-are-too-busy-selling-monitoring-services-to-help-identity-theft-victims-2012-3" target="_blank">have been getting slammed</a> by the FTC for upselling credit monitoring services and making it difficult for people to report fradulent activity.</p>
<p>What's more, credit monitoring doesn't prevent theft. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-you-should-ditch-your-credit-monitoring-service-2012-3" target="_blank">Your Money contributor Stacy Johnson</a> says,</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"<span>Monitoring your credit is marketed as if it&rsquo;s a burglar alarm that keeps bad guys out. But what it more closely resembles is an alarm that&rsquo;s tripped as the bad guys are leaving. By definition, credit monitoring can only monitor transactions that have already occurred. What you want is to prevent them from happening in the first place."</span></p>
<p>FTC spokesman&nbsp;<a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42997608/ns/today-parenting_and_family/t/stop-id-thieves-stealing-your-kids-credit/#.T3MlkWNSQyA" target="_blank">Steven Toporoff told NBC TODAY</a>&nbsp;parents can check a child's credit report for <em>free</em> every three to four years for good measure.</p>
<p>If anything looks suspicious, immediately request a credit report from all three bureaus, he says. Parents can also contact the <a href="http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/publish/v_fact_sheets/Fact_Sheet_120.shtml" target="_blank">Identity Theft Resource Center</a> for free help.</p>
<p>Additional&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/idtheft/idt06.pdf" target="_blank">basic tips</a>&nbsp;to deter identity theft per the FTC include:</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong>&nbsp;<strong>Protect your Social Security number</strong></p>
<p><strong>2. Don't give out personal information on the phone, through the mail, or on the Internet.</strong></p>
<p><strong>3. Don't click on links sent in unsolicited emails.</strong></p>
<p><strong>4. Use a difficult password for any accounts</strong>.</p>
<h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/seven-dangers-to-watch-out-for-when-using-your-debit-card-2011-9#standalone-atms-that-skim-cash-1" target="_blank">Now see 7 dangers to watch out for when using your debit card &gt;</a></h2>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dont-blow-money-on-credit-monitoring-for-your-kids-2012-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-bureaus-are-too-busy-selling-monitoring-services-to-help-identity-theft-victims-2012-3Credit Bureaus Are Doing A Less-Than-Stellar Job Of Helping Identity Theft Victimshttp://www.businessinsider.com/credit-bureaus-are-too-busy-selling-monitoring-services-to-help-identity-theft-victims-2012-3
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:25:00 -0400Mandi Woodruff
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4f71f4cd6bb3f7462200006c/cards-joker-gambler.jpg" border="0" alt="cards, joker, gambler " /></p><p>The Federal Trade Commission has turned the tables on the three biggest credit reporting bureaus in the U.S., calling them out for less-than-stellar practices when it comes to handling consumer identity theft reports.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The FTC's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ftc.gov/os/2012/03/factareport.pdf">Survey of Experience of Identity Theft Victims</a>&nbsp;drew responses from more than 3,000 identity theft victims on how they felt about their experiences reporting fraud.</p>
<p>The majority were pleased (68 percent) but what's upsetting about the report is the nature of many complaints made about the bureaus themselves.&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>The shady upsell</strong></h3>
<p>Several respondents complained about credit agencies that tried to pressure them into paying for additional services when they attempted to report fraud&ndash;especially credit monitoring.</p>
<p>Here's a telling excerpt from the report:&nbsp;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">&ldquo;[T]hey kept trying to sell me a fraud alert package and I often had to ask to speak to a manager to get them to put a freeze on my credit reports.&rdquo; Likewise, others complained that &ldquo;[t]hey tried &nbsp;to sell me fraud prevention products&rdquo; and that it was &ldquo;very difficult to avoid marketing strategies &nbsp;of CRAs for services.&rdquo; Several focus group participants also complained that while attempting to place a fraud alert, they were sold various identity theft prevention products."&nbsp;</p>
<p>There's been a lot of contention among experts over whether credit monitoring's just a pernicious way for credit agencies to beef up their bottom line or a useful theft prevention tool.</p>
<p>There are pros (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/06/14/why-critics-are-wrong-about-credit-monitoring-services/" target="_blank">you'll get instantly up your credit knowledge game</a>) and cons (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-you-should-ditch-your-credit-monitoring-service-2012-3" target="_blank">it costs money and doesn't prevent ID theft anywa</a>y). Either way, consumers shouldn't be barraged with sales pitches when all they want to do is report fraudulent activity they won't be held liable for in the first place.&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Jumping through hoops</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Common concerns noted by respondents were that Experian, Trans Union and Equifax make it too difficult for them to reach a live representative by phone.</p>
<p>And once they've got someone on the line, the information exchanged isn't always the most transparent, especially when it comes to the steps they can take to prevent future fraud.&nbsp;</p>
<p>More than 40 percent of respondents said they weren't told they could place a fraud alert on their credit report&ndash;a right designed to consumers under federal law, along with getting a free credit report and blocking fraudulent information from turning up on their report.&nbsp;</p>
<p>That's sort of a big deal, especially since you can only get a fraud alert through one of those three bureaus.&nbsp;</p>
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<h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/seven-dangers-to-watch-out-for-when-using-your-debit-card-2011-9#standalone-atms-that-skim-cash-1">Now see 7 dangers to watch out for when using your debit card &gt;</a></h2>
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</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-bureaus-are-too-busy-selling-monitoring-services-to-help-identity-theft-victims-2012-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/in-search-of-the-elusive-11-credit-report-2012-3In Search Of The Elusive $11 Credit Report http://www.businessinsider.com/in-search-of-the-elusive-11-credit-report-2012-3
Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:03:00 -0400Stacy Johnson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4f69f9616bb3f7f833000012/leopard-jungle-hunter.jpg" border="0" alt="leopard, jungle, hunter " /></p><p>You know how important your credit is. From jobs to credit cards, from insurance to mortgages, your credit touches nearly every aspect of your financial life.</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s why the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was amended years ago to require the &ldquo;big three&rdquo; consumer reporting companies &ndash; Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion &ndash; to allow you a free copy of your credit history once a year. You get it by ignoring the commercials on TV and going toannualcreditreport.com.</p>
<p>This is only fair. If everyone from a potential employer to your insurance company is going to make decisions and set rates based on your credit history, you darn sure have both the right and obligation to look it over at least once a year.</p>
<p>But what if you want to look at it more often? There are some circumstances in which you can get additional free reports. From the FTC website&hellip;</p>
<p>You&rsquo;re entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse action against you, such as denying your application for credit, insurance, or employment, and you ask for your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company. You&rsquo;re also entitled to one free report a year if you&rsquo;re unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; if you&rsquo;re on welfare; or if your report is inaccurate because of fraud, including identity theft.</p>
<p>If you&rsquo;ve used your free reports and don&rsquo;t fall into the above categories, however, you&rsquo;ll have to pay for additional copies. But the law also sets the maximum fee for that: $11.</p>
<p>And that&rsquo;s where this story starts. Because a law that limits the charge for a credit report to $11 doesn&rsquo;t do&nbsp;you much good if the companies tasked with providing it hide it instead. And that&rsquo;s exactly what you&rsquo;ll encounter when you try to find an $11 credit report from any of the big credit reporting bureaus. What you&rsquo;ll find instead is up-sell: a confusing plethora of product pitches from credit monitoring services to report/score bundles.</p>
<p>In the video below, I show you on-camera proof of just how hard it is for even a credit expert to find the inexpensive report you&rsquo;re entitled to. Check it out, then meet me on the other side for more.</p>
<p><strong>Follow-up</strong></p>
<p>As I closed the story above, I promised to tell you what the FTC had to say when I confronted them about the difficulty of obtaining what credit reporting agencies are obligated to provide.</p>
<p>I started by calling the FTC and talking to a media spokeswoman. I described the results of my report, and even provided a link to the script for the story above. She told me that she&rsquo;d check it out, but the FTC wouldn&rsquo;t acknowledge whether they would do an investigation. I didn&rsquo;t expect to hear anything back, and I didn&rsquo;t. But I did follow up again. Following is the email chain&hellip;</p>
<p>Me:&nbsp;On 1/24/12, we spoke about a news story we shot regarding the difficulty of finding an $11 credit score on the big three websites. To refresh your memory, here&rsquo;s a link to our script. &hellip; Based on the script above, can you please provide a comment?</p>
<p>FTC:&nbsp;Unfortunately, there are no specific requirements under the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) as to how the CRAs (Credit Reporting Agencies) market their products and services, except with respect to the free annual file disclosures that can be obtained from&nbsp;annualcreditreport.com.</p>
<p>Me:&nbsp;So I take it that the FTC is fine with what these guys are doing and won&rsquo;t be conducting an investigation or otherwise making it easier for consumers to find an $11 report?</p>
<p>FTC:&nbsp;The FCRA does not address the fact pattern the reporter described. Staff does not comment on whether or not certain conduct is acceptable or not and cannot opine on what the Commission may or may not do.</p>
<p>Me: Thanks for the additional comment. We&rsquo;ll use it. But just so you know, this part of theFTC&rsquo;s mission statement will go into my final story:</p>
<p>&ldquo;Our Mission To prevent business practices that are anticompetitive or deceptive or unfair to consumers&hellip;&rdquo;</p>
<p>I&rsquo;m the reporter in the story, and it&rsquo;s my opinion &ndash; and I suspect many other people&rsquo;s &ndash; that hiding the least expensive option for a credit report behind a wall of up-sell is most definitely deceptive and unfair to consumers.</p>
<p>If there&rsquo;s someone there able to comment on that, we&rsquo;d love to include it.</p>
<p>There was no response from the FTC to the final email.</p>
<p><strong>How to find cheap reports</strong></p>
<p>If you&rsquo;ve used your quota or otherwise don&rsquo;t qualify for a free report, here&rsquo;s a step-by-step guide that will steer you to the cheapest options &ndash; at least until the reporting agencies shuffle the deck again.</p>
<p><strong>TransUnion</strong></p>
<p>It took our professional credit counselor 11 minutes and 5 seconds to find the cheap option. Here&rsquo;s the shortest route we found to get there&hellip;</p>
<p>. Click the tiny &ldquo;Site Map&rdquo; link at the very bottom of TransUnion.com. (It&rsquo;s in the middle, sort of.)</p>
<p>. In the leftmost column (labeled &ldquo;Personal&rdquo;), under the section header &ldquo;Credit Disputes, Alerts and Freezes,&rdquo; click &ldquo;Credit Reports and Disclosures.&rdquo;</p>
<p>. On the right is a &ldquo;Convenient online services&rdquo; box with a link to &ldquo;Purchase a TransUnion Credit Report.&rdquo;</p>
<p>. This leads you to a form to create an account, after which there is a checkbox trying to upsell you again &ndash; it says you can get your &ldquo;personal score&rdquo; for $9.95. Skip it and you&rsquo;ll get the option to purchase a &ldquo;personal credit report&rdquo; for $11.</p>
<p><strong>Equifax</strong></p>
<p>It took our pro 7 minutes and 22 seconds to find the basic option here. Here&rsquo;s the route around the front-page up-sell to the $11 report&hellip;</p>
<p>. Go to <a href="http://www.Equifax.com" target="_blank">Equifax.com</a> and move your cursor over &ldquo;Equifax Products&rdquo; in the upper left, which will present a drop-down menu. Click the last link, &ldquo;Compare Products.&rdquo;</p>
<p>. Here you&rsquo;ll see a handy list of all the junk you didn&rsquo;t ask for compared side-by-side. What you want isn&rsquo;t even visible as an option yet &ndash; click the red &ldquo;Single Use Products&rdquo; tab.</p>
<p>. Now you&rsquo;ll see four more options ranging from $15 to $40, which still don&rsquo;t include just the basic report. Scroll down and find the $9.95 &ldquo;Identity Report,&rdquo; which is the cheapest option we found.</p>
<p><strong>Experian</strong></p>
<p>Our pro gave up after 15 minutes of hunting for the $11 option. Given the number of links on the front page</p>
<p>&ndash; including Experian&rsquo;s highlighted product, which claims to provide your credit report and score for $1, but will auto-bill you $17.95 a month unless you cancel within a week &ndash; we can&rsquo;t blame him. But in terms of the number of steps and clicks, this may actually be the easiest CRA to navigate once you know where to look&hellip;</p>
<p>. On <a href="http://www.Experian.com" target="_blank">Experian.com</a>, in the bottom left &ldquo;Products&rdquo; column, click the first option: credit report.</p>
<p>. You&rsquo;ll get a side-by-side comparison that, unlike Equifax, includes the cheap option on the first page, instead of at the bottom of a second page. On the right you&rsquo;ll see a link to order a $10 &ldquo;Experian credit check.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>The bottom line</strong></p>
<p>When I started as a consumer reporter more than 20 years ago, you couldn&rsquo;t see your credit report at any price. After years of outcry from consumer advocates, it became possible to pay to see your report. After years more under the spotlight, Congress relented and changed the law to allow for one free report and unlimited cheap ones.</p>
<p>But free credit reports aren&rsquo;t easy to find when credit reporting agencies are allowed to heavily advertise deceptive websites like freecreditreport.com. And cheap credit reports won&rsquo;t do you any good if you have to wade through a maze of up-sell to find them.</p>
<p>The FTC&rsquo;s mission statement is to prevent deceptive practices. In at least this instance, I think they&rsquo;re failing in their mission.</p>
<p>What do you think? Sound off on our <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/facebook">Facebook</a> page. You can bet there are credit reporting agencies and people in Washington who will see it.</p>
<h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/get-ready-for-the-smart-credit-card-2012-3?utm_source=recentpost&amp;utm_medium=authorbox&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=1&amp;utm_campaign=recirc" target="_blank">Don't miss: For better or worse, get ready for the smart credit card &gt;&nbsp;</a></h2><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/in-search-of-the-elusive-11-credit-report-2012-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>